“Because I’m an inbetweener—and the only one anyone knows of at that—the dead turn to me when something is askew between them and the living. Usually, it’s something mundane like a suicide gone wrong or someone revived that shouldn’ta been.”

Carlos Delacruz is one of the New York Council of the Dead’s most unusual agents—an inbetweener, partially resurrected from a death he barely recalls suffering, after a life that’s missing from his memory. He thinks he is one of a kind—until he encounters other entities walking the fine line between life and death.

One inbetweener is a sorcerer. He’s summoned a horde of implike ngks capable of eliminating spirits, and they’re spreading through the city like a plague. They’ve already taken out some of NYCOD’s finest, leaving Carlos desperate to stop their master before he opens up the entrada to the Underworld—which would destroy the balance between the living and the dead.

But in uncovering this man’s identity, Carlos confronts the truth of his own life—and death.…

WHY IT’S ON MY RADAR:
I read Daniel José Older’s short story collection, Salsa Nocturna, back in 2012 (in which he introduces Half-Resurrection Blues’s Carlos Delacruz), and I was absolutely blown away. If you think you’re done with urban fantasy, you should reconsider, because NO ONE does it like him. His Latin infused fantasy is sinuous, creepy, dark, tender, and just plain fantastic. I got all that from short stories, so I can’t wait to dig in to his first full length novel!

The year is 1877. Automatons and steam-powered dirigible gunships have transformed the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War. All of the country’s land west of the Mississippi was sold to Russia nearly fifty years earlier, and “Little Russia,” as it’s now called, is ruled by the son of Tsar Alexander II. Lincoln is still president, having never been assassinated, but he’s not been seen for six months, and rumors are flying about his disappearance. The country is being run as a police state by his former secretary of war Edwin Stanton, a power-hungry criminal who rules with an iron fist.

Liam McCool is an outlaw, known among other crooks as “King of the Cracksmen.” But his glory days as a safecracker and the head of a powerful New York gang end when he’s caught red-handed. Threatened with prison unless he informs on his own brethren fighting a guerilla war against Stanton’s tyranny, McCool’s been biding his time, trying to keeping the heat off him long enough to escape to San Francisco with his sweetheart Maggie. But when she turns up murdered, McCool discovers a trail of breadcrumbs that look to lead all the way up to the top of Stanton’s criminal organization. Joining forces with world-famed lady reporter Becky Fox, he plunges deep into the underground war, racing to find Maggie’s killer and stop Stanton once and for all.

King of the Cracksmen is an explosive, action-packed look at a Victorian empire that never was, part To Catch a Thief, part Little Big Man, steampunk as you’ve never seen it before.

WHY IT’S ON MY RADAR:
I’m constantly on the lookout for steampunk that I can sink my teeth into, and I love the Ocean’s Eleven, heist caper vibe this books gives out.

From the acclaimed author of The Troop—which Stephen King raved “scared the hell out of me and I couldn’t put it down.…old-school horror at its best”—comes this utterly terrifying novel where The Abyss meets The Shining.

A strange plague called the ’Gets is decimating humanity on a global scale. It causes people to forget—small things at first, like where they left their keys…then the not-so-small things like how to drive, or the letters of the alphabet. Then their bodies forget how to function involuntarily…and there is no cure. But now, far below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, deep in the Marianas Trench, an heretofore unknown substance hailed as “ambrosia” has been discovered—a universal healer, from initial reports. It may just be the key to a universal cure. In order to study this phenomenon, a special research lab, the Trieste, has been built eight miles under the sea’s surface. But now the station is incommunicado, and it’s up to a brave few to descend through the lightless fathoms in hopes of unraveling the mysteries lurking at those crushing depths…and perhaps to encounter an evil blacker than anything one could possibly imagine.

Part horror, part psychological nightmare, The Deep is a novel that fans of Stephen King and Clive Barker won’t want to miss—especially if you’re afraid of the dark.

WHY IT’S ON MY RADAR:
Nick Cutter, if you don’t know, is a pseudonym for a highly acclaimed Canadian author, and as well as Cutter’s first horror outing, the fantastic The Troop, I’ve read his alter ego’s work as well (it’s excellent.) What this all means is that he’s a not to be missed author, and The Deep is already getting rave reviews. What else do you need?

Kristin Centorcelli is the Associate Editor at SF Signal, proprietor of My Bookish Ways, a reviewer for Library Journal and Publisher’s Weekly, and has also written for Crime Fiction Lover, Criminal Element, and Mystery Scene Magazine. She has been reviewing books since late 2010, in an effort to get through a rather immense personal library, while also discussing it with whoever will willingly sit still (and some that won’t).

Recognition

TSP On This Day

The Book Swede interviews Brian Ruckley, author of Winterbirth. "I admit there are a few more deaths in Winterbirth than is common in a lot [of] fantasy. I've got a vicious streak, though I'm not sure I'll ever quite match GRRM's bodycount." [via Orbit] The latest SF Site column Books I've Been Avoiding: Overlooked or Over-hyped? by Neil Walsh looks Continue Reading →

You know you'e got too much time on your hands when you "photoshop" a music video to Lord of the Rings. (Or, blog about it. :)) Try these on for size: "They're Taking The Hobbits To Isengard" and "Mashed Taters". [Link via Grow-a-Brain]

With all the recent brouhaha about Pluto planet classification, I thought it'd be fun to list science fiction stories in which Pluto plays a prominent role. The following list is culled from SciFan and The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction by John Clute and Peter Nicholls.Plutonia by Vladimir Obruchev (1924) Cosmic Engineers by Clifford D. Simak (1950) Man of Earth by Continue Reading →

I chanced across the book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell recently and added it to my wish list 'cause it sounds cool. Well, there is also a website for the book, complete with the character's reactions to the book. There is also some extra stuff to look through. The book looks interesting, I can't wait for John to get it Continue Reading →